{"id":641218,"date":"2026-05-13T19:53:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T19:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/641218\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T19:53:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T19:53:08","slug":"could-i-learn-basketball-later-in-life-my-young-coach-was-determined-to-try","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/641218\/","title":{"rendered":"Could I learn basketball later in life? My young coach was determined to try"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Illustration by Drew Shannon<\/p>\n

First Person<\/a> is a daily personal piece submitted by readers. Have a story to tell? See our guidelines at tgam.ca\/essayguide<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The \u201cNever Too Late\u201d Sports Program at my community centre has one of the worst program titles I have ever heard. (Sorry, City of Ottawa staff!) It\u2019s offered by the city for women who want to try a sport that they have never experienced before. It focuses on the very basic skills of a select number of sports. In my case, basketball.<\/p>\n

Whatever you are envisioning right now as beginner-level sports, dial it back about 15 degrees and picture the words: \u201cThis is how you hold a basketball. No, not like that. Like THIS,\u201d being said aloud. <\/p>\n

Repeatedly. This is where I\u2019m at.<\/p>\n

As a forty-something public servant living in the outskirts of Ottawa, I often find myself frustrated by the lack of entry points into sports I haven\u2019t tried in decades. <\/p>\n

And so, as luck would have it, as another night of doom-scrolling progressed, I came across an ad for the new program in my neighbourhood. As a woman over 18 years of age (and over 25 and over 35) I wasn\u2019t sure if this program was meant for me, but I decided to venture out and test out my knees anyway and see if hand-eye co-ordination was something I had been blessed with. Spoiler alert \u2013 it wasn\u2019t. <\/p>\n

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You may be shocked to learn that a program with such an exciting name ended up with a low registration rate. Only four women between the ages of 30-50 registered for the Winter 2026 program. But what we lacked in numbers we made up for in unbridled skill, and by skill, I mean enthusiasm. <\/p>\n

The program was enriching in that I was able to meet and engage with people I never would have encountered in my regularly scheduled life. <\/p>\n

Everyone had their own reasons for signing up. One woman was watching her son\u2019s basketball tryouts and thought, \u201cI can do that!\u201d Another wanted to get back into the sport so she could coach her kids. I wanted to see if I had missed my chance at being WNBA star Caitlin Clark. <\/p>\n

We spent Wednesday evenings from 8 to 9 p.m. squatting lower than any human has ever squatted before and practising layup drills that were developed as a form of psychological torture. We bonded over the pain and the progress. <\/p>\n

Trying a new sport can be intimidating. Trying anything new for the first time can be daunting, but the creation of a women\u2019s-only program where the judgment level is low and the motivation level is high felt like a sweet spot where anything was possible. I learned to dribble and shoot, to bounce pass and layup, but I also learned to be patient with myself and the other participants. To give myself a break. <\/p>\n

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Part of this learning was instilled by the best part of the program \u2013 the instructor, an extremely earnest twenty-something who was blind to the fact that most women over 35 probably won\u2019t be making it to the WNBA.<\/p>\n

He pushed us in the best way possible. There was no mention of our ages, no comments on our existing lack of skills. We consistently focused on progress and laughing at ourselves, every single week for the two months the program took place. <\/p>\n

He played brash rap music to get us into the headspace of the real basketball stars we are. While no scouts ever showed up to recruit us (yet), his passion for the sport and coaching was refreshing. <\/p>\n

The entire experience was equal parts hilarious, educational and heartwarming, and for that I am grateful to have participated. I still cannot do a crossover to save my life but my three-point shot isn\u2019t too shabby. <\/p>\n

Sometimes the benefits of trying something new are clear, like building confidence or physical fitness. Sometimes the gift is a stranger who believes that the first 40+ WNBA recruit might be in a City of Ottawa school gymnasium tonight, she just doesn\u2019t know it yet. <\/p>\n

Alexis Kozinski lives in Ottawa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Illustration by Drew Shannon First Person is a daily personal piece submitted by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":641219,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[42618,24296,17238,99,434],"class_list":["post-641218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-first-person","tag-noastack","tag-nodelphi","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}